Daryl Hall plays classic Hall & Oates set amid John Oates lawsuit

Daryl Hall reportedly played all the Hall & Oates hits at a concert in Japan on Thursday (23 November) despite his ongoing legal battle with bandmate John Oates.

News emerged on Wednesday that Hall had obtained a temporary restraining order against his longtime partner Oates after filing a mysterious lawsuit.

According to Variety, Hall, 77, played the duo’s classic hits, including “Out of Touch,” “I Can’t Go for That (No Can Do)” and “Private Eyes”, on stage at the Tokyo Garden Theater.

“I Saw The Light” singer Todd Rundgren also appeared at the show.

Details of Hall’s litigation are sealed; however, records show the lawsuit was filed in Nashville’s chancery court on Thursday 16 November.

The pair are apparently at odds over what songs Oates is allowed to sing by himself, sources familiar with the dispute told TMZ.

Representatives for Hall and Oates did not respond to The Independent’s request for comment.

Daryl Hall (left) and John Oates in 2003

(Getty Images)

The complaint also named Oates’s wife Aimee Oates and Richard Flynn in their capacities as co-trustees of The John W Oates TISA Trust.

A day after the suit was filed, Hall was granted a temporary restraining order against Oates, 75, after a $50,000 restraining bond was obtained.

Maria M Salas, the office’s public records request coordinator, told USA TODAY in an email Wednesday (22 November) that a hearing has been scheduled for the morning of 30 November.

Formed in Philadelphia in the 1970s, Hall & Oates have been performing as a duo as recently as last year.

Their brand of “blue-eyed soul” has scored six No 1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, including “Kiss on My List” and “I Can’t Go for That (No Can Do)”. They also achieved six platinum albums and many more Top 10 singles like “Sara Smile “and “She’s Gone.”

During a September 2022 appearance on the Club Random with Bill Maher podcast, Hall said that Oates was not his “creative partner”.

“You think John Oates is my partner? … He’s my business partner. He’s not my creative partner,” he said at the time.

“John and I are brothers, but we are not creative brothers. We are business partners,” continued Hall. “We made records called Hall & Oates together, but we’ve always been very separate, and that’s a really important thing for me.”

His comments echo those made by Oates in a 2020 interview with The Independent. “We always saw ourselves as two separate, creative individuals. Not some two-headed monster. Every record sleeve reads ‘Daryl Hall and John Oates,’” he said.

In addition to solo projects, Hall & Oates have released several albums together since their heyday and retain “a brotherly relationship and a commitment to touring – we never wanted to be stars, just successful musicians”, Oates added.